"We gave the approval to Google a couple of weeks ago and they have already taken up space in the city to begin operations," Software Technology Parks of India director B V Naidu said in Bangalore on Thursday.

The government-owned STPI provides satellite-linked datacom services to IT firms and incubate start-ups.

Naidu said Google is planning substantial investments in the centre, though declining to specify the amount.

The global Web-search technology firm is also setting up a customer support centre in Hyderabad.

The India centre will be headed by a three-member team, including Krishna Bharat, Google's principal scientist, and Antoine Colaco, Manager, who will be relocating from Google's headquarters at Mountain View, California in the United States.

The centre, which will mirror Google's other offices, will undertake projects in data mining, data warehousing, business intelligence and knowledge management.

Google was founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, students from Stanford University and is coming out with an initial public offer to raise about $2.7 billion.